Titans shed longshot tag to win championship

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This article was published 20/03/2024 (927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Shaftesbury Titans were an overlooked bunch entering the Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League playoffs.

A losing record in the regular season (10-12-0) and no players receiving all-star consideration left little to be expected of the group against the league’s heavyweights.

And yet, the personal accolades didn’t matter much when the Titans delivered the knockout blow to the Glenlawn Lions in overtime Monday to skate away with the program’s first Division 1 crown.

The fifth-ranked Titans rattled off three consecutive series wins against higher-ranked squads, beginning with a 2-1 series triumph over No. 4 Churchill before sweeping top-ranked St. Mary’s Academy in the semis and No. 3 Glenlawn in the finals.

“It was just a matter of the girls getting hot at the right time — good goaltender and clutch scoring. It’s any kind of playoff run you would want to go on,” said Titans head coach Tom Miko, in his third season heading the girls program.

Down 2-0 with 10 minutes left in regulation, Shaftesbury was pushed to its brink in Monday’s championship-deciding contest. The club clawed back to even thanks to goals from Megan Humniski and Seanna Price, but it was defenceman Lana Cipriano who played hero early in the extra frame to earn the Titans a hard-fought 3-2 victory.

Goaltender Sofia DiNicola held her own in the crease, making 11 saves in the win.

“It really felt awesome, just coming back from that,” said captain Mikaela Nimetz, who will join the University of Jamestown’s (North Dakota) blue line this fall. “We thought we were (going to lose) but everyone really contributed and brought us back from that.

“It was really nice to see everyone do their part and do it well.”

Shaftesbury’s last hockey banner came from the 2007-08 season, during its days in Division 2. A few difficult years ensued for the program, including taking a pause for a few seasons before joining Division 1 in 2021.

Shaftesbury had a lean roster upon returning and, while the numbers have begun to increase, the team often iced an incomplete lineup (due to some players’ commitments to community clubs) this season.

The Titans had to be a sum of its parts to play winning hockey.

“This year, it was still touch-and-go for most of it… but to finish fifth and then start believing in themselves and the little things — all those practises, all those ideologies of coaching you have — start to pay off,” Miko said.

“They’re just a very special group of young ladies. They’re academically smart, they work hard and they never got too high or too low.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam